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BACKGROUND
There i
s almost no way of exaggerating the statistics or the conclusion: Nigeria’s education
system has all but collapsed. The fact that schools no longer have faith in the results of theJoint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) examinations and need to organise post-UME examinations is one pointer. Another is the fact that employers have had to extendtraining periods after employment before new staff can be deployed.But, nothing underscores the issue more than the secondary school examinations resultreleased by the two exam bodies in Nigeria. The West African Examinations Council (WAEC)2009 results, according to Waecdirect.com, show an overall poor performance with only
26%
percent obtaining a credit pass in Mathematics and English. In the same vein, the NationalExaminations Council (NECO) November/December 2009 results show
98%
failing to clinchfive credits, including English and Mathematics. Only
1.8%
got five credits, including Englishand Mathematics. It was the poorest result in the history of the examination body.At primary school level, things are not much better. In an international study reported by theWorld Bank in which learning achievements in 22 countries in sub
‐
Saharan and North Africaare compared, the learnin
g achievements of students in Nigeria’s primary schools were the
lowest with national mean scores of
30%
compared with 70% in Tunisia and 51% in Mali.
THE PROBLEM
There are a series of factors that have led to this point. This is an example of a near-perfectstorm of negative factors combining in a synchronous yet disastrous harmony. To this extent,most of the angst expressed recently about the latest results may be misplaced. Emotions donot solve problems. We failed to invest in Education and so we reaped the results.For a long time now, the standards of education in Nigeria have been in free fall due to thefollowing well known reasons:
Financial mismanagement, corruption and bureaucratic complexity.
The problems hereinclude corruption amongst education and government officials, such that allocated moniesare not received or utilised effectively. While some may argue that the budget allocation istoo little, however, virtually no country in sub- Saharan Africa has the volume of funds that
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Nigeria can afford to allocate to education. Yet other countries do much better in terms of education quality (as can be seen from the primary school results in the World Bank study).There is also the issue of how education is treated in the constitution. Education is on theconcurrent list and the funding structure is opaque and very complex. There are too manyagencies and too much replication. This fuels corruption and huge bureaucracy that preventfunds from reaching where it matters most - the classroom. Therefore, there is a need toaddress governance and legislation.
Many parents do not see the relevance of education as it is taught in Nigeria today
.The curriculum is deemed outdated and out-of-touch with 21st century skills and realities.There is also the issue of enrolment.
In many Nigerian states, enrolments have fallen.According to the Federal Ministry of Education, Nigeria has 7 million school aged children thatare not in school. This is the highest in the world! Cultural norms & traditions contribute tothe low enrolment figures.
The quality of teachers and teaching is abysmal.
Unmotivated teachers, poor quality of teaching and low learning outcomes are rife across all levels of education According to theKwara State Commissioner for Education, an aptitude and capacity test was organised for atotal of 19,125 teachers in the State's public school system in 2008. Out of these, 2,628 wereuniversity graduates. The teachers were given tests that were designed originally for primaryfour pupils in English and Mathematics. At the end of the exercise, only seven teachers out of the 19,125 crossed the minimum aptitude and capacity threshold. Only one out of the 2,628graduate teachers passed the test, 10 graduates scored outright zero. The teachers faredworse in literacy assessments which recorded only
1.2%
pass rate.
Infrastructure and low capacity are also issues.
Pictures of primary school pupils takingtheir lessons under trees while sitting on the floor, or huddled under leaking classroom roofs,have become all too common. But infrastructure is not the primary issue facing the educationsector (as our forefathers who studied under worse conditions can attest to). In truth, thequality of instruction is even more of an issue.
Warped values have introduced corruption to the classroom.
Learning is no longer of prime importance to students. Inordinate focus on riches and short-cuts seems to be. Thereis an increase in exam malpractice and lecturer abuse.
Policy flip flops are the order of the day.
The influence of politics and policy instability hasbeen damaging to education. The head of a parastatal recently expressed deep frustration in
“working with eleven Ministers and 14 Permanent Secretaries in the past eleven years”!
THE OUTCOME
According to a previous Central Bank Governor,
“71 per cent of Nigerian graduates like bad
cherries
won’t be picked by any employer of labour because they are not fit for anything even
if they were the only ones that put themselves forward for an employment te
st”
. The next
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generation is largely illiterate. Where are the leaders, managers, engineers, doctors, craftsmenand artisans of the future? Who is going to be working when this generation is old?Concrete efforts and solutions are required. It is not simply a matter of giving multi-millionNaira contracts for providing furniture, a perfunctory increase in budget, education summitswithout new ideas and formats, or superficial competitions. There has to be a comprehensivestrategy that engages the problem from its many different angles and the strategy has to besustained. Above all else, it has to be outcome-oriented. Below are some solutions to addressthis state of emergency in education.
THE SOLUTION
The Role of Teachers and Teaching
Teachers are at the heart of education. The most important interaction in any educationalsystem is what goes on in the classroom between the teacher and the child. Therefore, anysolution must support this interaction. The Mckinsey & Co.
2007 Report on The World’s Best
Performing School Systems highlights only 3 key solutions that can drastically improve a
country’s educational system. 2 of those solutions focus on Teachers:
a. We must get the right people to become Teachers; recruiting from the highest percentile.(An educational system cannot rise above the level of its teachers). Teachers must alsopossess motivational and communication skills.b. We must continuously develop Teachers to become effective instructors through rigorousprofessional development.c. We must put in place mechanisms to ensure that schools deliver high quality instruction toevery child/student. (The system must be held accountable and rigorously tested andmeasured).
Therefore, our solutions must focus primarily on Teaching and Accountability.A credible living wage must be instituted for teachers.
Teachers should earn enough tolive on and should be paid on time. The States must be held accountable for this.
Ongoing teacher training must be institutionalised.
For instance,
The TeachersRegistration Council of Nigeria may be restructured into an institute capable of re-trainingand administering accreditation examinations [much like the Institute of CharteredAccountants of Nigeria (ICAN)]. All teachers in Nigeria must be continuously retrained andtake examinations every year to be re-accredited as teachers.
An emergency plan must be put into place to attract volunteer teachers and retainexisting ones.
A Teachers Volunteer Programme must be set up to attract individuals whowish to give up a few months to go into schools to teach. A fund should be set up to defraythe administrative expenses. The NYSC should be repurposed for 3-5 years to focus on
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